Iga Swiatek optimistic French Open defence will proceed despite thigh injury

World number one Iga Swiatek is optimistic a thigh injury will not prevent her from attempting to defend her French Open title. The 21-year-old was forced to retire from her Italian Open quarter-final against Elena Rybakina with the issue on Wednesday.

“We did an examination with the physio afterwards,” said Swiatek.

“It shouldn’t be anything serious, so I’m pretty positive that I’ll be back soon.”

The three-time major winner needed treatment before retiring at 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 2-2 against Kazakhstan’s Rybakina.Swiatek was in tears as she left the court for a medical timeout during the second-set tie-break and returned with strapping on her right thigh.

The Polish player won the previous two Italian Opens and was on a 14-match winning streak in Rome.

“For sure I feel tired. I think it was the right decision to stop playing because I felt pain when I was stretching, when I did harder movements,” she added.

“For me, the most important thing is to play it safe and not exploit my body so much in such difficult conditions, after having to play a few matches in night sessions and after midnight.

“I’m happy right now to have few days off because since [a previous tournament in] Stuttgart I wasn’t really able to recover with that tight schedule that we have on the WTA.”

The French Open at Roland Garros begins on 28 May.In a message on social media on Thursday, Swiatek wrote: “A couple of days off for sure. And booking my flight to Paris, so fingers crossed, please.”

(BBC Sports)